Favorite Recipe: Poppie's Pineapple Casserole is perfect for holidays

By
Ron Vidika, The Morning Journal

Monday, September 23, 2013

AVON LAKE — With the holiday season just around the corner, Janet Meck, president of Altrusa International of Lorain County, is sharing her mother’s recipe for a tasty casserole that would make an ideal dessert for family and friends.
It’s called Poppie’s Pineapple Casserole.
“Here’s the story,” said Meck, a retired banker who lives in Avon Lake with her husband, Jim. “I don’t know who my mom, (the late) Hazel Kline, got the recipe from. But, I would say we’ve been making the casserole in the family for at least 25 years.
“My mom made it for some family function once and everyone fell in love with it,” she said. “We would have a potluck and, since I don’t cook, my husband does, I’d call up my mom and plead with her. I’d say, ‘Mommy? Can you make this pineapple dish for me?’
“Now, since my husband does all the cooking, when I need him to make this casserole, I’ll say, “Honey? Can you make this pineapple dish for me?” Meck said. “Somewhere along the line, our granddaughter Gabriella DehMalo, started calling Jim ‘Poppie.’ So, the name stuck with him and with the casserole,” Meck said.
The 18 members of the Altrusa Club of Lorain, all professional women ranging in age from their mid-20s to mid-80s, have done much to keep literacy alive in the Lorain community since it was founded in 1949.
Meck speaks with pride when relating the club’s many success stories, one of them establishing a lending library at Lorain’s Faith House for the children of single mothers.
“Faith House takes in single women with children for a two-year program and train them to go out on their own,” she said. “Each of them has a success story. Last year, we put a bookcase filled with books in their community room. The books are for students from kindergarten through sixth grade. We made it a lending library.”
In order for the women to continue to finance their projects, they began hosting a rummage sale last year.
This year’s rummage sale will take place 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sept. 29 at the office of Dr. Joseph Deliman, 1210 W. 44th St., Lorain. The sale will take place outdoors in the parking area. If the weather is inclement, the sale will occur indoors.
“We’ll have a little bit of everything there,” Meck said. “We’ll have bicycles, collectables, Christmas decorations, wreaths, all sorts of things.”
Altrusa International is an international nonprofit organization focused on community service. It was founded in 1917 by Dr. Alfred Durham as a chain of national clubs for business and professional women. For further information on Altrusa, call membership chairman Rita Deliman at 440-282-3214.
As for the casserole, Meck said, it should be served warm and can be used as a side dish.
“But we have eaten it cold the next day, and it still tastes just as good,” she said. “I have taken this dessert to so many functions. I can’t begin to tell you. Jim made recipe cards and I take them wherever I take this dish.”
Poppie’s Pineapple Casserole
servings: 4
20 oz. can pineapple chunks, drained
¾ cup grated cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons of flour
½ cup sugar
½ stick margarine, melted
12 Ritz crackers, crushedMix pineapple, cheese, flour, and sugar. Pour into casserole dish. Sprinkle Ritz cracker crumbs on top. Pour margarine over crumbs.
Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Bake without lid.
(This is a small casserole that doubles or quadruples well. If you bake four times the recipe, heat it at the same temperature for 50 to 60 minutes).